


Mirror, Mirror

by KagekaNecavi



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Marvel, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Evil, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 15:59:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7514419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KagekaNecavi/pseuds/KagekaNecavi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The things and people Tony found in alternate dimensions never ceased to surprise him. Unfortunately this was a very bad surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror, Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the [Disassemble](http://67.media.tumblr.com/abdc025803fe795fb027b160773c9357/tumblr_inline_o8zl4fZ9D81qmb808_1280.png) prompt for [round four](http://capim-tinybang.tumblr.com/post/147137409640/cap-im-tiny-rb-round-4-disassemble-and-director) of the [Tiny Reverse Bang](http://capim-tinybang.tumblr.com/). The fact that Tony is from the Avengers Assemble Universe isn't made clear in the fic, but that's what I had in mind while writing it. If any of the tags make you hesitant AT ALL, especially given there are only a few characters tagged, please see the end notes.

“If you just tell me who he is things will be so much easier on you,” Steve said, pacing back and forth in front of the chair Tony was tied to. “I know you aren’t of this world, but that should make it easier on you. Giving me the name of a man you technically don’t even know should be nothing.”

Tony shook his head, eyes shining in defiance. He was afraid that if he actually said anything he’d betray his emotions, so he kept quiet. How could Steve go so wrong in this world? Every other Steve Rogers he’d ever encountered was a wonderful man. A paragon of virtue and goodness. And then there was this one. This one who had kidnapped Tony the moment he stepped foot in this universe and had been holding him captive ever since. How could Steve go so wrong?

“Iron Man used to be Tony Stark’s bodyguard before they both disappeared. Things may be different in your universe, but they can’t be that different,” Steve said, turning and looking Tony up and down. His eyes settled on the reactor in Tony’s chest and he stroked a finger around the skin right where the casing met Tony’s body. Tony jerked back in the chair but he wasn’t able to go far, being tied to the chair at the ankles and wrists.

“This universe seems completely different to me,” Tony said. “In my universe Steve Rogers is a good man.”

“I’m a good person,” Steve’s eyes flicked back up to meet Tony’s, narrowing dangerously. “I don’t know why Iron Man is running from me. People needed me to take control, they begged me to. I was just doing what they wanted. And yes, in order to do that I had to dirty my hands a little, but things are better here than they ever were before. The country is booming and we’re at peace. Things are amazing now. I just want the other heroes back.”

“And how will knowing Iron Man’s secret identity help you find him? For all you know he’s a nobody. Or the Iron Man in my universe could be dead here and yours might be different,” Tony said.

“Don’t,” Steve said warningly, his hand going flat and pressing against the arc reactor. Tony hissed in pain and writhed against him, trying to buck him off. “Don’t say he’s dead. Iron Man was my best friend before all of this. Don’t even suggest he might be dead.”

“Yeah, understood,” Tony said and Steve removed his hand. Tony gasped for air, chest aching and burning.

“I always admired you, Tony. A regular man financing the Avengers, making communications and armor, repairing our gear when it broke, housing us, feeding us,” Steve started, trailing a finger lightly over Tony’s jaw.

“I am not your Tony!” Tony snapped. If the softer tone had been meant to throw Tony off it was working. “I’m not from this universe. I may not be anything like the Tony you knew!”

“Oh, but I think you are. I was about to say that this bravery, this loyalty, makes me admire you even more. But I need you to tell me. If you don’t I’m going to have to do something neither of us wants.” Steve stroked his fingers down Tony’s jaw again, eyes following the path of his fingers for a while before flicking back up to Tony’s face.

Tony shook his head, steeling himself. There was no way this would end well.

“Suit yourself, Tony,” Steve said, sighing.

* * *

 

The passage of time had become difficult to track, given when Steve came and interrogated him and then left again. He was never gone for the same length of time, he was never there for the same length of time. Occasionally he would come in just to spoon feed Tony some broth and give him water and after he left those times he was usually away long enough for Tony to digest some of it before the interrogation started again.

So when Steve came in with wide eyes and holding a gun, Tony had no idea how much time had passed. He just knew that he didn’t think he could last much longer. Near the beginning he’d been moved from the chair to a standing position, wrists stretched high above his head and feet barely able to touch the ground. When Steve came in he went over to Tony, unlocking the manacles at his wrists. Tony collapsed on the spot, groaning in pain as the multitude of bruises and burns and cuts on his body were jostled by the impact.

“Get up. Come on!” Steve snapped, leaning down and grabbing at Tony’s arm, yanking him upright. Tony let out a cry of pain, his sore muscles protesting at the rough treatment. This was unlike anything that Steve had done so far, but Tony wasn’t particularly surprised. Steve hadn’t exactly been consistent. They had only gotten a few feet down the corridor outside of the small room Tony had been held in when an explosion rocked the building and Tony’s eyes widened. Then he smirked.

“I’m being rescued, aren’t I?” he asked, planting his feet. Of course, Steve was far stronger than Tony even on Tony’s best days but the surprise of Tony actually resisting made Steve stop.

“Or I could be under attack by someone who will take just as much pleasure in your death as mine,” Steve said, tugging on Tony’s arm. Tony followed, not believing that it was just some random other person. Maybe it wasn’t about Tony himself, but it had to be the heroes of this world or the heroes from Tony’s universe.

They went through a door and into a stairwell and had gone down two flights when the door on the landing below them exploded in a shower of dust and plaster and wood. A very familiar red white and blue shield sang through the air as the dust settled, hitting this Steve’s hand and knocking the gun away. The shield then bounced off the wall and ricocheted back through the dust.

Knowing that injured as he was and without his armor he was very vulnerable, Tony pressed into the corner of the stairwell and just watched. An armor strode through the hole in the wall, tall and imposing and colored black and red. That was an interesting color scheme. Tony had never used it before.

“Iron Man!” Steve said, sounding overjoyed. “It’s so good to see you-”

“Steve, stop. This ends now,” Iron Man said, and Tony knew that this universe’s Iron Man wasn’t Tony Stark. There was something about the cadence of his voice under the armor’s modulators that gave it away. It sounded … it sounded more like Rhodey, if he had to guess.

And then Tony’s Steve stepped through the hole and stood beside Iron Man, and Tony’s heart leapt. Their eyes caught each other and he saw Steve’s tense shoulders relax just slightly, though his jaw clenched.

“I’m taking Tony home and if you try to keep him from me you’ll find out what the business end of the shield feels like,” Tony’s Steve said, and Tony grinned wide.

“Go. I’ll stop him if he tries to get in your way,” Iron Man said. He pointed repulsors at Steve and powered them up. Tony stood and stumbled a little but managed to get over to his Steve safely. He was almost immediately wrapped in Steve’s protective arms and practically hauled out of the building.

* * *

 

Tony had been held captive for nearly a week, it turned out. It took them about four hours after that to get back to their own universe and another two to get Tony checked out by a medical team. When they finally arrived back at the tower Tony was so happy to be home he was legitimately near tears. Steve got him settled in bed but before he rested Tony wanted to know everything Steve had known.

“Their Iron Man was Colonel Rhodes -” Steve started.

“I knew it! When I saw him I could just tell by the way he walked or spoke or something. He and I wear the armor differently,” Tony said, smiling and leaning against Steve. He’d been scared that being around his own Steve would unsettle him now, but so far he seemed fine. It would probably come back to bite him in his nightmares though.

“It was Rhodey because their Tony Stark was dead. He’d died almost three years ago. Not long after that megalomaniac version of me rose to power,” Steve shifted a little and wrapped his arms tightly around Tony, holding him close.

“You’re nothing like him,” Tony said firmly.

“I know I’m not now, but it’s terrifying to know he’s what I could have become if things had gone the wrong way. Apparently he was aware when he was frozen. He could hear the ice moving and shifting and creaking around him. For seventy years he was frozen and trapped and,” Steve shuddered, “apparently when they found him the first thing he did was scream until they sedated him.”

Tony turned and buried his face in Steve’s neck. “You’re not him. You’re not him. And when we both wake up tonight with nightmares, we’ll be here for each other.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> End Note Warnings: Tony is tortured, off screen, by an alternate universe Steve. That Steve was awake and aware while he was in the ice, and that has warped his mind. There is also mention that the Tony Stark of the alternate universe died several years ago and Rhodey is now Iron Man there. But things turn out all right in the end.


End file.
